Family matters in unraveling human longevity

200 years in most industrialized countries. However, even though people started to live longer, the time spent in good physical and cognitive health is considerably short. In fact, 70% of the 65 year old people and 90% of the 85 year old people already have at least one disease and on average four diseases [1]. In contrast to the general population, a few remarkable persons become exceptionally old without the burden of age related diseases (e.g. high blood pressure, malignancies, and type 2 diabetes) [2]. Hence, the study of such exceptionally old individuals (longevity) is important as they likely harbor gene-environment interactions which beneficially regulate molecular pathways involved in longevity, resistance to disease, resilience to negative side-effects of treatment and therefore healthy aging.